Troubled Economy: Avoid Tricky Food Rip-Offs

Grocery shopping is a chore that most people are very familiar with. Consumers out shopping for groceries often look for a good deal. From the produce department to the deli, shoppers frequently take advantage of promotions and sales when visiting their local grocery store.

However, despite the fact that shoppers seek out good deals and sales at the grocery store, they are often not getting the value they think they're getting. Particularly in recent months, with the economy struggling as it is, the pricing and packaging tricks used by food producers can catch consumers unaware. If you would like to avoid tricky food rip-offs on your next grocery shopping trip, the following tips may prove helpful!

Look out for changing portion sizes of familiar food products - Many companies are trying to hold onto their profits by shaving the portion amounts of your favorite grocery products. Start paying attention to the amount of ounces in your favorite grocery products, so that you will notice if those numbers start to decrease, even as the price remains the same. Just today, I realized that the brand and package of chicken nuggets that I sometimes buy decreased by almost ten ounces! The package stayed exactly the same size, and if I hadn't noticed how empty the bag seemed when I picked it up - causing me to check on the portion size, I would have been completely tricked. Needless to say, I did not buy the product.

Shoppers can no longer assume that larger sizes of a favorite product are a better value - Many consumers are aware that packaging is expensive, and for that reason, we are often served with a better value if we can buy a larger size of a food item. For instance, it used to be that juice sold in smaller sized bottles actually cost more, per ounce, than the larger sized bottles. Because of this, many consumers routinely grab the larger sized bottle in order to receive a better value for their money. Beware though, because several juice companies recently flipped this rule, and are tricking innocent consumers. For instance, today I noticed that in my local grocery store, the 64 ounce sized bottle of Langer's apple juice is priced at $1.58, or 2.5 cents per ounce. I then noticed that the larger sized Langer's apple juice bottle had changed in size. Whereas it used to be a typical one gallon, or 128 ounce, sized bottle, the amount of ounces had decreased to 101.4 ounces, and the bottle was priced at $3.11. This equals out to 3.1 cents per ounce! I quickly realized this packaging trick, and knew that buying two of the 64 ounce bottles of Langer's apple juice was actually a better deal than purchasing the larger bottle. This way, I was only paying 5 cents more, and I was getting over 25 ounces more juice. The same can be found with other apple juice brands such as Tree Top, as well as with popular orange juice brands. So check your juice if you want to truly save money on your groceries, and keep an eye on the "per ounce" price on the various sizes of all of your favorite grocery items. The "per ounce" price can be found on the price tag located on the grocery store shelf.

We all understand that the economy is struggling, however consumers still do not appreciate being tricked by food companies that they have been supporting for years.